It Ends Here Tonight
by Rachel Hunt
Summary: DHG.Severus is caught, death and torture ensues. Draco takes issue with the recent events, unkempt Draco ensues. Suicide, love, hate, BDSM, rage, duty.CH2: Pansy makes some unwanted advances, Draco is forced to defend his honor.SONGFIC EPIC
1. Consigned to Fire, Storm

**Title**: It Ends Here Tonight

**Author**: Rachel Hunt

**Disclaimer**: If I really thought I owned this, would I be putting it on a fanfiction site under 'harry potter'? 'Nuff said. And I definitely have nothing on the music featured.

**Summary**: **_SONGFIC EPIC._** Taking place around the time of their Seventh Year, the war with Voldemort has become so intense that regular school/classes have been put on hold (indefinitely) because all efforts must be put into merely surviving. Hogwarts has become one of the last safe houses and is partial Headquarters for the Order of the Phoenix; only the most trusted members, generals if you will, are taken into Grimmauld Place. The dementors have gone over to Voldie, the prisoners of Azkaban are loose, and it's impossible to tell who is friend and who is foe, as the whole wizarding world is set on edge. Severus gets caught, Lucius is killed, Draco defects, and all sorts of angst and messing with of the natural order ensues. Death, love, suicide, duty, hope and loss are the main themes you'll find here. Also featuring: a grim Dumbledore, a murderous Ron, an isolated Harry, and a resolute Ginny. All will come to a head in the final battle between The Boy Who Lived and the Dark Lord. **Ultra dramatic**. I repeat, **_SONGFIC EPIC_**

**Projected Length:** 26 chapters, may become slightly longer or shorter due to requests from reviewers, my own laziness, etc (suggestions and theories welcome, I just don't promise to take them)

**Musical Artists to be Featured**: Saliva, Evanescence, Puddle of Mudd, Nickelback (also considering Disturbed, Element Eighty, and Tantric; open to suggestions)

**Rating: **PG-13, probably R later

**Pairings**: Draco/Hermione, and maybe a little something for a few special guest stars… If your going to try to guess, keep in mind that I have no qualms about almost anything, from slash to extreme age differences. Everything is a possibility. Except Ron/Voldemort. That would be icky. _shudder_

**Author's Note**:This came to me on an eight hour plane ride between Frankfurt (yes, the one in Germany) and Chicago. I was thinking about how all the songfics seem to only be one-shots, and decided this was Wrong, (note capitalization for emphasis), and here we go. Hope you like, and while I have extensive plans, I tend to get discouraged without reviews…. (hint) And if you like this, thank Nightshade Darkholme, she's the one who encouraged me to write it!

EDITED & REPOSTED

**IMPORTANT NOTE FOR READING:**

**--...-- wil be used to distinguish lyrics**

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It Ends Here Tonight

_Chapter One: Consigned to Fire_

"Storm" by Saliva

Severus stood still between the two Death Eaters, pride and dignity overlaying the exhaustion written in the haggard lines of his face. He looked much as he always had, greasy hair hanging lank about his face, black robes draping his thin frame. Perhaps thinner than he'd been before, but that was to be expected; war took it's toll, after all, and certainly on a double agent within Voldemort's sanctum. What was new to his appearance was the spreading bruise along the upper swell of his right cheekbone, the delicate line of blood that trailed down from crooked nose to thin lip, and the way he favored his left leg, ever so slightly, almost unnoticeable beneath his robes.

Death Eaters never were gentle when they found a traitor in their midst.

And there were, of course, the substantial chains that circled his wrists and ankles.

_A nicely dramatic touch_, he thought with the last dregs of his sarcastic humour.

At that moment, the door banged open, and in strode a figure that had been familiar to him since boyhood. Seeing that aristocratic face twisted, as it was so rarely, by some deep emotion brought a wave of melancholy up in Severus.

_--Life is like a melody, sang deep within my soul, sang deep within to me--_

"Severus."

"Lucius." Severus nodded at the older man, as if this were a commonplace way for them to meet.

His jaw tightened, imperceptible to anyone who had not known him for most of his life. "You two, get out," he ordered the wizards on either side of Severus.

They shifted, unsure of whether to leave one of their commanders alone with the traitor, no doubt.

Lucius pulled out his wand, deadly calm in those cold gray eyes of his. "Did you not hear me? Leave."

They left.

And Severus had to face one of the few men he truly regretted having betrayed.

"_What_ were you _thinking_, Severus!" A fine tremor shook the hand that held Lucius' wand. "_Why_?" He actually ran a hand through his meticulously perfect blond hair.

Severus found himself at a loss. This furious apparition before him had not been what he'd expected; anger, yes, but the controlled, deadly anger that the Malfoys were so well known for. The cold flame that Draco had always lost control of when confronted with Potter, but his father had fine-tuned to an accepted art form. The anger Severus had expected was the one that would bring down an Unforgivable with nothing more than a sneer of contempt for one too weak to defend himself.

_--And all these chains that shackle me  
They won't let me take control--_

But instead he was faced by a Lucius shaking with rage… Severus looked him in the eye, knowing he owed his old friend an answer. He owed Lucius more than that. He owed Lucius loyalty, for being the one who'd sheltered him when he had been nothing more than a frightened first year and Lucius an admired fifth year, who'd been the strong hero of the Slytherins for those first three shining years at Hogwarts. Who'd left the dungeons darker when his seventh year ended and he took his place in the newly forming forces of Voldemort, and Severus found that Hogwarts was no longer his sanctuary.

Severus looked into the dark countenance of one of the only men he'd ever called 'friend.' "I'm sorry, Lucius, for betraying your trust…"

And therein was the reason Severus had joined those same forces… a decision that had haunted him the rest of his life, marking him as other, killing what had once been in him…

"…but never for working against the Dark Lord."

…hope.

There again that minute tightening of jaw. Then dawning resignation. Lucius, looking defeated for the first time in his life, slumped down onto the one chair in the room.

"For how long?" the drooping figure asked.

Severus finally looked away. "Nearly a year and a half before the fall of the last order. Almost twenty years now…"

Silence was the only response.

They stayed like that for awhile, Lucius staring dejectedly into the space around him, Snape looking on grimly. He didn't understand why Lucius was taking it quite this way.

Finally, Lucius looked up. He had regained much of his chill control, but some of the anger still seeped out as he said quietly "We were supposed to be as brothers."

Severus winced. It had been a pact they made, when they were the some of the only young purebloods they're parents deemed suitable company for each other (inbreeding having taken it's toll on the intelligence of many a pureblood), each the only heir to a long family name. In Darkness born and Blood entwined, Brothers until the day to Fire they were consigned. But Severus hadn't thought Lucius cared for that bond in a long time.

"You're my _son's godfather_. Do you know—?" Lucius made a noise in his throat. "Of course you know. But did you _think_ how this would affect my family?"

Severus felt an odd pang of amusement through his pained haze. _Ah, always the politics of the family name, Lucius._ He responded without the thought in his voice, though. "I know, Lucius. I had hoped Voldemort would never rise again... that this would never become an issue."

Lucius went on as if he hadn't heard him. "How will Draco survive, without either of us? Narcissa won't be in good enough stead to protect him, even after the fire dies down…"

Severus looked at him sharply. "What do you mean, '_either_ of us'?" What had Severus missed in his self-centered resignation to fate?

But Lucius didn't get the chance to answer, because it was then that the two thugs of wizards returned, looking much more confident now.

"The Dark Lord wants the traitor brought to him, now," one said directly to Lucius with surprising impertinence.

Lucius slipped back into his calm control with the efficiency of one who had walked on eggshells around the Dark Lord for years without misstep. He didn't correct them, however, on their disrespectful address. The two of them turned to Severus.

"Leave him," Lucius hissed at them.

They just looked at him

_--They wanna take control of me--_

"I'll bring him to the Dark Lord."

Lucius laid the tip of his wand to the back of Severus' neck and started walking without the acknowledgement of the others.

Malfoys never waited for others.

Scenes from Severus' life here, in Voldemort's Dark Keep, flashed through his mind as he passed by heavy wood doors, through damp stone hallways and up poorly lit stairs. The day of his initiation as a Death Eater, pride in Lucius and Narcissa's faces as the Dark Mark burned into his arm, as Severus stared in rapt wonder at his Dark Lord. Dark Revels spilling into the halls, blood and lust infused in the being and melding with pain until it all became an act of transcendence. Days and nights of companionship, of solitude, always of belonging. And then finally the night when he was ordered to kill.

Not just to kill, but to murder. No wand, no distance. No way to step back from it.

It was a point reached for every Death Eater, when they were ordered to kill without their wands. The Dark Lord used it as a test, of sorts, to weed out those who truly believed in his cause, and to rate them. There was something impersonal about _Aveda Kadevra_, that made it not feel like murder. A sort of delayed reaction that never quite arrived. It had been rather different to look down and see the blood, literally, on his own hands.

To the present day, he didn't know who it was he'd murdered, nor what they had done to incur Voldemort's displeasure. Severus knew himself well enough to know that there were things in him, memories and feelings and knowledge, best left alone.

It was after this that he went to Dumbledore. Not immediately. It took days for Severus to return to a frame of mind anything akin to normal after the high of taking a life, after the final layer of acceptance into Voldemort's Death Eaters. It was everything Severus had ever craved in his starved life. Power, a role to play, belonging.

But there was blood under his fingernails, blood sunken into the creases of his hands, blood soaking through cuffs of his robes and into him. It was when this hit him that he sought out Dumbledore. The benevolent man who had, occasionally, stepped in as protector after Lucius graduated from Hogwarts. Somehow, this wizened figure seemed to offer a chance at redemption, which he was coming to realize Voldemort did not. In a desperate attempt at making amends, Severus had offered to act as a spy.

Dumbledore, grimly, had accepted.

It was after the charade began that Severus grew to respect Dumbledore. There was no condemnation in him, merely… acceptance. That word again, but this time it was a kind of acceptance that would never ask anything not freely offered. It was something new to Severus, something it took him a long time to fully understand.

And in direct relation to the growth of his loyalty to Dumbledore, so grew his surety that he could not be redeemed. Severus grew a sense of morality in that time, as the acts he had to perform to keep up his pretense as a loyal Death Eater became more and more repelling to him.

But he continued them anyway. He lied and acted the part of the true Death Eater, Lucius Malfoy's protégé, to ensure the strength of his true loyalties.

He continued his aid to Dumbledore, and in so doing brought himself more into the fold of the damned.

The press of Lucius' wand in the back of his neck lessened as they found themselves before the iron-bound doors that led to Voldemort's Hall._  
_

_--I've got to rise above my life--_

The thugs pushed open the doors, and Severus came face to face with the darkling throng, for the first time not looked upon as one of them, but as the enemy.

_--To find the reason I'm alive--_

Those who turned to him looked on with contemptuous cruelty. Here, where all were of the same ilk they didn't bother with their masks and special robes… but for Severus, their true faces were enough. The people who'd once regarded him as ally or friend now showed, at best, scorn. He scanned the crowd for those whom he'd known; most of his Slytherins were nowhere to be seen, which was just as well. Pansy Parkinson, however, stood near the front of the crowd.

She appeared to be fighting the urge to spit on him.

The dying light of the setting sun filtered in through the few windows in the room; not enough to illuminate the high arch of the ceiling that still gave back dead echoes of Death Eaters' whispers and sharp _clank_ of his chains on the black marble of the floor. As he walked forward, the horde parting and reforming around his escort, he caught the sight of Narcissa.

She closed her eyes and turned away.

_--I'll save myself, I'm all alone--  
_

Severus stopped looking at those around him. These had not been his people for a long time… so why did his chest hurt so?

_--I've opened my heart to see there's nobody home--_

They reached the throne on which Voldemort chose to sit. Elegantly imposing, it was clearly intended for a strong monarch. The Dark Lord never overlooked a trapping of power.

Such was the nature of his contradictions to Dumbledore and Hogwarts.

It took Severus a moment to realize that the Dark Lord's unnatural red eyes hadn't come to rest on him, but on the man standing behind him.

Lucius stepped around Severus and knelt, making his wordless obeisance.

"Luciussss…." The snakelike gaze that accompanied the hissing voice was fixed on that bowed blonde head with the attention his cobra might show to a wounded bird.

"My lord."

"You have allowed a traitor to join my ranks, Luciussss."

A tremble of tension ran down the bowed back of the man, and Severus began to realize what he'd done to the Malfoys, began to move beyond the thought of his own death and the Order. What he'd never thought of, caught up in his own selfish intrigues. He restrained himself from trying to speak in defense of the Death Eater; any words on his part would only further condemn Lucius; with luck, it would still simply end at torture.

"You have failed me, Luciusss. You have always been _weak _when it came to this one. It is a failing that will not go unpunished."

"Yes, my Lord." His voice held no reaction.

Severus shifted, allowing his chains to clink in hope of drawing away the attention. He didn't want to watch Voldemort draw out Lucius' punishment. The crimson eyes snapped up, and Severus found himself regarded by the full weight of that stare for the first time in a long while; a spy, after all, was meant to blend in, not stand out.

"Take Luciusss asssside; I will deal with him after." The Dark Load didn't specify whom he addressed, or take his eyes from Severus. But with the perfect obedience of the fanatic, the very same two thugs escorted Lucius off to the side of the room.

_--It's up to me, I'm on my own--_

"_You,_ traitor. You have conspired against me."

Severus didn't respond, just looked back with an attempt at keeping his face as impassive as Lucius' voice had been.

Something that might have once been a smile passed over the Dark Lord's face.

"You do not even try to deny it?"

_--The message of life is turning--_

Severus squared his shoulders as he continued to look the Dark Lord in the face, keeping his mind closed to Legilemency. "I do not." He sneered strategically, "although it took you and yours long enough to figure it out."

The Dark Lord's face curled in rage. He raised his wand, and Severus readied himself for the curse that would take him.

_--Facing the storm--_

"_Cruciatus_!"

Severus would have gasped with the shock of pain if he'd had the air to do it. He could feel his very bones being crushed as his muscles clenched around them too tight, his skin melting away under the force of agony. It was the second time in his life that he'd felt a thousand glass knives piercing and shattering within him, slicing him into ever smaller pieces until he was left as nothing but bloody red ribbon. The first had been the night he'd tried to stand up to his father, shortly before he'd left for Hogwarts; that night had taught him certain lessons.

_--Life is filled with your memory--_

He'd learned how to want to die, how to wish for it with all your soul, but also how to hold onto the spark of rage that hid beneath; he'd learned how to desire death, but to live at the same time. And how to watch someone you love crumble away piece by piece without giving way yourself.

_--You were deep within my heart--  
_

His father's dark, angry face could still loom up at him at the most unexpected times. Strangely, he had trouble remembering the exact lines of his mother's face, she who had been so dear to him.

_--You were deep with inside of me--_

But they were both long dead, and he was here, now, and shaking in the aftermath of pain, it's sudden absence almost as bad it's presence.

_--And all this pain that I'm wrapped around--_

He could feel bile rising in the back of his throat as he relearned how to breathe. He knew the Dark Lord had feasted on his memories at that moment, that he'd gotten past his occlumency, using Severus' pain to do it. He swallowed back his rage with the fact that he'd gotten nothing of the Order from it… only his painful past. He studied the immaculate gray flagstones, the way his blood glinted on them as it dripped from his mouth until he could raise his head.

He would not betray the Order.

_--If there's a heaven up above--_

Severus knew resolve was the only thing that showed in his eyes as he looked at the Dark Lord. Voldemort. There was no point in calling him the Dark Lord now; it wouldn't give him away anymore. No, that he'd done when his owl to Dumbledore had been intercepted.

He expected to see rage in the Dar—in Voldemort's snake face, but there was an odd kind of satisfaction glinting there. A knot of fear began to form in Severus' gut as he watched it flicker and spring into being, an evil thought shivering through the bones of an evil being.

He would not let Voldemort see his fear. He would give him no such pleasure. Severus knew then that was it. Voldemort had seen that it would not be so easy to pluck the truth and lies from his mind—and he had seen the pleasure he could take out of the trying.

It would take Severus Snape a long time to die.

_--I see the angels falling down--_

He finally allowed the hatred he had felt for this creature to rise to his face as he struggled to his feet. He locked his knees against their impulse to let him fall; he would face this with all the pride of a stubborn, pure-blooded Slytherin.

_--I've got to rise above my life--_

Blood and phlegm had pooled in his mouth. Severus took a bold step toward Voldemort, and before a loyal Death Eater could pull him back, spit it into that smiling, white face.

_--To find the reason I'm alive--  
_

Severus found himself back on his knees with pain in his head as an unseen fist hit him from behind. He could feel the rage of the assembled Death Eaters rising as soon as the shocked gasps were past. How dare anyone disrespect their Lord so?

_--I'll save myself, I'm all alone--_

"_Traitor_!" A woman screeched from somewhere amongst the Death Eaters. People hastily parted for the infuriated Bellatrix Lestrange as she clawed through the few who were not quick enough to move. Her once-beautiful face loomed before Severus, the black hatred that was the only thing alive in her heart firing behind her eyes. "You _vile_, mudblood-loving fool!" She raised her wand. "You will--"

"_Bellatrix,"_ Voldemort hissed.

The woman froze, then turned and fell to her knees in a flash of dark hair. Voldemort looked down on her, Severus' blood and spit still shining on his face. He took no note of it as he said to the woman, "You forget your place. He isss mine, and unlesssss I tell you to do otherwissse, you will hold your tongue." He smiled. "Or I will hold it for you."

"Of course, my lord," she said quietly as she backed away, never raising her head.

And Voldemort's attention returned to Severus.

_--I've opened my heart to see there's nobody home--_

Thin, fleshless lips turned up as another smile bloomed on that face like a horrible flower. Severus knew hatred was dancing in his own black eyes as a thin, pale hand reached up to touch the blood.

Voldemort regarded the fluid with the air of a connoisseur considering a fine wine. He brought his fingertips to his mouth and a pink tongue flicked out. "Ah, Sseverussss…. You have hated us for quite a long time now, haven't you?"

_--The message of life is turning--_

Severus didn't respond.

Red eyes circled the room slowly, lazily. "It isss interesssting that no one ssssaw it before." Voldemort's cobra suddenly came into view over the top of the throne, its cold eyes fixed on Severus. The bloodied hand reached up, and the snakes tongue flicked out to the blood just as Voldemort's had. "Not even my Nagini sssniffed out your true loyaltiesss for sssure." He looked, then, to Lucius where he stood to the side, having watched it all with dead gray eyes. "I wonder how some, some who knew you well, could have missssssed it for so long."

Lucius, as he had not been asked a question, said nothing.

"Come before me, Luciussss."

Lucius Malfoy came to the edge of the dais and knelt, never having looked anywhere through the whole audience.

"Do you have anything to sssay for yourssself, Luciusss?"

Severus saw Lucius' shoulders tense slightly. Nothing showed in his voice as he said, "Only, my lord, that I am loyal to you alone—I am your servant in all things. I never knew of Severus' betrayal. I allowed boyhood loyalties to blind me. It is entirely my own fault."

"Pretty words, Luciussss. Pretty words designed to draw me away from your family. But, I think this one time you may be right. What are you willing to do to prove your families innocence, Luciussss? What could you give me that would be worth leaving them alone?"

"My lord, all that I am belongs to you… I would give you anything you asked of me, if you didn't already have it."

"Of course you would, Lucius."

The muscles in Severus' back were knotting at this turn. He knew this kind of conversation between Voldemort and another. When Voldemort spoke in that voice, it meant someone was about to bleed. Guilt curled through him at the hurt he'd caused those around him… Severus had never, in his life, been able to do anything right without doing wrong at the same time.

Voldemort stroked Nagini's head. He never said a word, but suddenly the snake was slithering down his legs to the floor, across the dais and down to the flagstones, forward to where Lucius still knelt. The man jerked as she sunk her fangs into his upper thigh, catching his femoral artery and pumping venom into him.

_--It's up to me, I'm on my own--_

"No!"

"_No_!"

The vehement shriek accompanied his own quieter protestation. Narcissa Malfoy had suddenly come to the fore, her cool blond person finally enraged after so many years cool and calm. Color rode high on her perfect cheekbones as she stared at her Dark Lord with rage in her blue eyes. "How _could_ you! Lucius would do anything for you, we were yours, we made our son yours! How could--"

"Shut up, Narcissa." Contempt curdled Voldemort's already sour voice. "He wasss mine, to do with as I chose. Just as you are. I am Lord Voldemort. You will return to your place immediately."

"You are nothing!" Narcissa screeched. "Nothing but a cowardly old man too afraid of death--"

"Imperio!" 

Narcissa was suddenly quiet and still, her face blank as she was held be the curse. Bellatrix stood behind her, wand in hand, and bowed low to Voldemort. "Forgive me, my lord, but I couldn't allow the sow to go one slandering you like that."

Voldemort waived a white hand as if clearing Narcissa's words from the air, though a tightness showed around the edges of his face. "I am done with her, Bellatrix. She issss yoursss, now. You have alwayssss sssserved me well… you may have cell 43 for twenty-four hourssss." Red eyes bore into Bellatrix's, now shining with mad excitement. "Make sure she does not die in that time."

Bellatrix bowed low again, thanking her lord for his generosity. She took her new toy back out the doors Severus had come in what felt like ages ago. No one took note of Lucius Malfoy dying on the floor as poison worked through him, blood spreading out in a pool around him.

Then Voldemort rose from his throne, stepping in a swish of robes down his dais. He came to Severus, and when they were close together, hissed so very quietly to him, for his ears alone, "They will die for it, Sssseverussss Ssssnape. People you love and people you hate, they will all die for what you have done." Cold fingers touched Severus' face almost gently. "But you will not die. No, Ssseverussss…. You will sssee it all. And when I am done with you, when everything you are has been extracted, when your even your soul has been raped…" Claw-like nails suddenly raked down Severus' cheek, tearing skin away in thick strips. But that wasn't what made Severus flinch. "Then, you will die."

_--Facing the storm--_

It would take Severus Snape a long time to die.

Fin Chapter One

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Alright, people, this is the part where you let me know what you think… or you stalk away in disgust. Questions, comments, suggestions, corrections, all are welcome. This story has sort of become my baby, and I'm dying to know what others think. Next chapter: where was Draco while his godfather and parents met their unfortunate ends? Brownie points for whoever figures out what song the next chapter will be. ((hint: an Evanescence song))


	2. Malfoys Never Cry, Everybody's Fool

**Title**: It Ends Here Tonight

**Author**: Rachel Hunt

**Disclaimer**: If I really thought I owned this, would I be putting it on a fanfiction site under 'harry potter'? 'Nuff said. And I definitely have nothing on the music featured. Previous chapter, as stated, was Storm by Saliva. This chapter is Everybody's Fool by Evanescence.

**Summary**: **_SONGFIC EPIC._** Taking place around the time of their Seventh Year, the war with Voldemort has become so intense that regular school/classes have been put on hold (indefinitely) because all efforts must be put into merely surviving. Hogwarts has become one of the last safe houses and is partial Headquarters for the Order of the Phoenix; only the most trusted members, generals if you will, are taken into Grimmauld Place. The dementors have gone over to Voldie, the prisoners of Azkaban are loose, and it's impossible to tell who is friend and who is foe, as the whole wizarding world is set on edge. Severus gets caught, Lucius is killed, Draco defects, and all sorts of angst and messing with of the natural order ensues. Death, love, suicide, duty, hope and loss are the main themes you'll find here. Also featuring: a grim Dumbledore, a murderous Ron, an isolated Harry, and a resolute Ginny. All will come to a head in the final battle between The Boy Who Lived and the Dark Lord. **Ultra dramatic**. I repeat, **_SONGFIC EPIC_**

**Projected Length:** 26 chapters, may become slightly longer or shorter due to requests from reviewers, my own laziness, etc (suggestions and theories welcome, I just don't promise to take them)

**Musical Artists to be Featured**: Saliva, Evanescence, Puddle of Mudd, Nickelback (also considering Disturbed, Element Eighty, and Tantric; open to suggestions)

**Rating: **PG-13, probably R later. Definitely adult themes, though… when I say PG-13, I don't mean just for occasional swearing.

**Pairings**: Draco/Hermione, and maybe a little something for a few special guest stars… If you're going to try to guess, keep in mind that I have no qualms about almost anything, from slash to extreme age differences. Everything is a possibility. Except Ron/Voldemort. That would be icky. _shudder_

**Author's Note**: I think that Evanescence might be the most songficced band in the history of songfics. Has anyone else noticed this? On another note, I just got Phantom of the Opera on Tuesday, and I'm majorly obsessed… like I haven't done any homework or anything all week because I'm too busy watching it over and over again. I have a big fat crush on Gerard Butler. I think he and Jason Isaacs are the two hottest men alive (look at Jasono Isaacs in The Patriot, not Harry Potter, and you'll see what I mean). So it took a lot of willpower to turn around, face away from the TV, and write this… though POTO is still playing behind me and I'm listening to it. So, be forewarned, it may influence my writing. I dunno. Enjoy. **_(later addition)_** I ended up writing this in two parts, because half way through my stepdad's father died, which 1) meant my whole family has been busy handling that and 2) made writing this chapter, which is from Draco's point of view after his parents deaths, a little… not awkward, but something like that. So now it's the night before my high school graduation that I'm finishing this. That's why there has been such a long delay. Okay, I'm done now. Really. I hope you enjoy, and have no way of knowing if you don't review. puppy dog eyes

**IMPORTANT NOTE FOR READING:**

**--…-- will be used to distinguish lyrics from thoughts**

**LAST TIME: **Snape was captured, Lucius killed, and Narcissa was given over to Bellatrix for 24 hours of punishment, with only one order: that she not die within that time. Draco was conspicuous by his absence… and now we continue.

EDITED & REPOSTED

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It Ends Here Tonight Chapter Two: Malfoys Never Cry 

"Everybody's Fool" by Evanescence

They followed him everywhere. He couldn't move without their eyes upon him.

Draco Malfoy, for the first time in his life, wanted nothing more than to be alone. But it was the one thing he couldn't seem to have.

Other than his parents back.

Something suspiciously similar to a sob tried to claw its way up from his chest, but it stuck in his throat and all that came out his mouth was a choked gasp for air. He hurried down a back hallway of the Keep, heading for a little used, dusty staircase. Anywhere he might find solitude.

Finding the stairs behind a heavy door, he stumbled down two flights to a place where they didn't bother to keep torches and all was black. But the tears still wouldn't come.

He was, after all, his father's son.

_--Perfect by nature—_

He slid down the wall, coming to rest with his head hanging between his knees, his long, lanky body trailing across several steps. The muscles in his neck were cording tight, as if he would strangle himself through sheer frustration, while his legs felt so slack and limp he wasn't sure he'd ever walk again. He hadn't been present for his father's murder or his mother's sentence, running an errand for them in Diagon Alley, where commerce went on despite the war raging in the wizarding world. But Pansy had wasted no time in bringing the news of his godfather's betrayal…. and the results.

_Severus Snape_. His fingers dug into his palms. It was his fault. This man the Malfoy's had trusted as they trusted few, and he had betrayed everything in their world. Draco had grown up with Severus as a second father, had loved him as one of his mentors and role models.

But it was all a lie.

And now, something was breaking inside Draco.

From the shadows just down the stairs there was suddenly movement and the distinctive sound of a door being opened. Draco stilled, cursing everything around him down to the cobwebs. The last thing he wanted right then was for another one of the damn Death Eaters to see him having a mental breakdown.

He stood, trying to regain some of the cool Malfoy shell his father had tried so hard to instill in him as a figure emerged from the doorway. It paused at seeing him, and then he heard a low-toned, melodious chuckle. His stomach clenched at the sound. He had come to know that voice very well in the last several years.

_--Icons of self indulgence--_

The smiling face of his Aunt Bellatrix slowly emerged from the darkness below. The black of her robes blended in with the shadows so that her head and hands floated up towards him. She looked much better than she had right after her return from Azkaban, but something about her now frightened him that hadn't before. It was accompanied by an icy rage that churned his gut, made him want to spit hateful words at her… his mother had raised him on stories of her bold, beautiful sister, her intelligence and fearlessness, and above all, her cunning. But none of it mattered now… he knew how she'd spent the last day.

Pansy had taken great delight in delivering every detail of what he'd missed.

"Darling nephew Draco…" Bella cooed to him in her self-satisfied way. She looked like a pampered cat as she mounted the steps, coming up to him with slow, deadly grace. Oddly, she looked saner than she had since her return from Azkaban, less manic. Something inside him turned over as he realized she was in the midst of an after-glow.

_--Just what we all need—_

Stretching her arms in long, pale lines above her head, she said, "What, no hello kiss for your Aunty Bella?" Her grin was a baring of gleaming white teeth.

Draco couldn't respond. It was all he could do to keep his face relatively passive. Her eyes, which had been so sadistically pleased a moment ago, returned to their cold deadness as she watched him. "You look so much like your parents, Draco…" She reached her pale hand toward his face, but he flinched, jumping back when he saw the blood embedded under her fingernails. _What has she done…?_

Quick as thought, she was backing him into the wall, wand in hand and thin body too close for comfort. His back hit the stones sharply as he instinctively tried to stay out of reach, the whites of his eyes showing as she leaned into him.

"I would be careful if I were you, oh Nephew of Mine. I'm the only family you have, now." And she grinned at him, her face coming closer to his own until she was but an inch away. "Your father didn't have time to scream properly before he died, but your mother has made up for it…" Oh, God, he could smell blood on her breath… why was there blood on her breath? "There's no need for you to pay for the sins of your father, as long as you remember where your loyalty, and best interest, lies. The Dark Lord is your master, Draco." She kissed his forehead then, lightly, not an affectionate but rather a condemning gesture. Bile rose in the back of his throat. "Remember that, Draco."

More lies about a world that--

And just like that, she left him there, the scent of blood and pain clinging about her and gore staining the lines of her hands. Draco started shaking, and when he heard a heavy door slam far above him, the pain in his soul tore through the meat of his body. He screamed his rage, fear, and grief, pounding his fists into the cold stones behind him until his hands were numb. He didn't care who saw him or heard him, who knew that his world had crumbled around him and left him standing alone in a cold wind.And still there were no tears.

_--Never was and never will be--_

He found himself bent double, arms wrapped tight around his stomach as if he could push it all back in.

What he needed was to rest, to sleep and be alone for a time, even if he knew he'd be watched in his normal rooms. At least there he wouldn't have to interact with the people watching him. Standing, he headed up the stairs, stretching out his hands as feeling began to return and an ache set in.

He managed to remain relatively out of sight until he reached the dormitory area for the children of Death Eaters, those who had yet to receive the Mark or had only recently been inducted, not yet proven. There, he would have to pass through the common area, and the eyes of teens and children alike would follow him. He was painfully aware of the fact that he did not look like his normal Malfoy self; dirt and dust stained the hems of his black robes, and he knew his usually immaculate hair fell, disheveled, around his angular face. He saw that his fingernails were torn and bleeding as he pushed the door to the common room open, and didn't know when it had happened; the pain seemed to be a distant sensation, not quite real.

The fine carpets and wall hangings that filled the room seemed to reach for him as he entered, trying to grab and hold him. When the heels of his expensive boots hit bare stone, the sound seemed to echo through the room and his mind, to call the attention of those few who may not have noticed him yet.

They were less discreet in their observations than their parents were. Here, they didn't even bother to pretend they weren't watching, weren't whispering about him. He saw Blaise Zabini grin at something his younger sister said, obviously smothering a laugh.

_--Have you no shame, don't you see me--_

Draco looked straight ahead, unwilling to acknowledge the smug looks they all gave him. Still, he knew that color burned in his pale face in rage that they would treat him so, he, who had just two days before been one of the most admired new Death Eaters, the most promising of the recently Marked. He hated them all, hated them for how easily they could turn on him. He didn't realize that if he had looked at them, looked into their cruel eyes, that behind the smug exterior would have burned terror that it would be one of them, their families, next.

_--You know you've got everybody fooled--_

That's what he would have seen in most of them, anyway. There were a few who were so confident in themselves that they didn't care. Pansy had spotted him when he entered and was now making her way over. He saw her coming, a sway in her hips and hair unmoving as it had been styled into straight blond submission.

_--Look here she comes now--  
_

The pink frills of her robes flounced as she moved, almost but not quite enough to overwhelm her ample bosom where it flowed over a low cut, tight neckline. A smile he had once thought seductive curled her bubble-gum pink lips as she saw him look at her, just as all the others still looked at her.

_--Bow down and stare in wonder--_

"Draco, my darling," she purred as she fitted her arm snugly around his waist. She ignored how his body stiffened and pulled away at her touch, staying with him as he continued to his room. Pale brown eyes, the color of poisoned honey, gleamed at him from beneath magic-enhanced lashes.

_--Oh, how we love you--_

"You gave me a bit of a fright, disappearing all day like that," she continued. "Some thought you might have run to that traitor," and she laughed, like the situation was just too funny for words. Her long, pink nails dug into his side, just a little.

_--No flaws when you're pretending--  
_

Draco looked at her, knowing his face was frozen in harsh lines as he asked, "And who would be _stupid_ enough to voice an opinion like that, Pansy?" They had reached the hall that led to the older boys' rooms.

Something flicked behind those sickly sweet eyes, a certain fall of eyelashes. "Oh, Draco, you know I don't like to point fingers." And she smiled up at him, completely aware that he knew she _loved_ to point fingers. "It doesn't matter, _we_ both know that your loyalty is to the Dark Lord." She cuddled in closer to his side as they neared his room.

"I don't know how anyone could be dumb enough to betray Him like that. Really, you should have been there, darling, it was an amazing thing to see." She watched him as she rambled on about the demise of those he cared most for, watching for any cracks in his Malfoy veneer. And she knew him well enough to see them, to enjoy the tightness at the corners of his mouth, his eyes. His control was good enough that he didn't fall to his knees and start screaming, or hit her and force her to stop… but not by much. It was through focussing on the thought that he was almost to his room, almost away, that he held on.

But, now, I know she  
never was and never will be--

He stopped outside his room, one hand on the door handle as he turned to tell Pansy good night, that he was turning in early. Before he could say it, though, she had curled her body in against his, pushing him back against the door. She draped her arms over his shoulders, one hand playing in his hair where it grew at the base of his neck. It gave him a marvelous view of her chest if he cared to look down to where it was pressed against his own. He could feel that her nipples were already tight against him, but instead of the usual excitement and fire that accompanied that realization, all he felt was a cold rage in the pit of his stomach.

_-- You don't know how you've betrayed me--  
_

Pansy either ignored the look on his face or somehow didn't see it. "Aren't you going to invite me in, Draco?" She laid a tiny kiss on his neck, pink tongue flicking out to taste the skin there.

He shivered, but not for the reason she thought. "I'm tired, Pansy. Not tonight." He fought to keep his voice cool and quiet.

She smiled again, the one that said she'd ride you hard and put you up wet, then eat you afterwards without ever changing expressions. "That's what you said a few days ago, Draco, but I convinced you otherwise."

"Things are a little different today than they were a few days ago, Pansy." He was very proud of himself for not spitting the words into that smiling face.

Her eyes narrowed. "Oh, Draco, I know it's awful, that you ended up… involved with all those traitors, but really, we all know that you had nothing to do with any of it. We understand it's not your fault. No one is holding you responsible." She smiled, seemingly sure that she'd reassured him. She began to lightly trace a pattern over his shoulders with her nails. "Come on, Draco, you know it'll make you feel better… I'll even let you top, even though it's my turn… I'll do whatever you want, be your perfect little bottom for the night. I'll enjoy that almost as much as I would getting to put _you_ in chains for the night. We both know how _good_ you are. You'll see, the… exercise will make you feel better. Please, Draco." She pouted prettily up at him, making her normally thin lips look full, sure of herself as always.

_She thinks I'm… what, embarrassed! She does, she thinks I'm embarrassed to have been connected to people who've gotten in trouble with the Dark Lord!_

Draco smiled back down at Pansy, but she must not have been paying attention, or she'd have expected from that smile what came next. He grabbed both her wrists, his hands easily encircling each. She just smiled, excitement flickering through her eyes…

"Pansy…" he whispered, leaning his face in towards her.

She pushed herself against him, not trying to pull her wrists away. She was practically purring. She didn't realize, yet, that this pain wasn't the beginning of foreplay, not this time.

_--And somehow you've got everybody fooled--  
_

"_Pansy_…"

"Yes, Draco?" she whispered back, her eyes drifting closed as his face brushed the side of hers, his breath against her ear.

He gripped her wrists tighter then, crushing, until she looked at him with anger and hurt in her eyes, finally realizing this wasn't the beginning of the night's games.

"You can go find someone else to be your bottom, or top, or whatever else you have in mind, because _IAMTIRED_." With that he shoved her away from himself, hard enough that her head smacked into the wall across from them. He pulled his wand from his robe pocket, just in case Pansy had any ideas. She could be a vindictive bitch.

If she had been practically purring before, now she was practically growling. Her face was contorted in lines of rage as she snarled, "What the hell is wrong with you?"

"I'm not interested, tonight, _Pansy_. Go ply your wares somewhere else," he snarled right back. Color was riding high in his cheeks again, but this time it was the comforting heat of rage. This, this anger, was familiar. It was good, an old and steadfast friend. So much easier to handle than grief.

"Goddamn you, Draco Malfoy!" she shrieked. "You have no right to treat me like some mudblood whore!"

He smiled, and knew his eyes were the color of dark clouds ready to rain. "Then maybe you shouldn't act like one, Pansy, _dearest_."

Her breath whistled in between her teeth. She drew her wand, then, long and thin between her immaculately kept fingers. He didn't know what she would have said, though, what spell she would have cast. He rushed her as soon as he saw the move.

Draco held her hand pinned against the wall, leaning all his weight against it, slowly crushing the bones and tendons. She made a surprised sound, then brought her other hand up to his face, trying to claw out his eyes. She got in a good scratch and he grunted before burying his face in between their shoulders, where her long nails couldn't reach him. Instead, she started to grasp for the back of his neck, under his robes, as if she'd tear the flesh away from his spine.

He ground into her hand harder, then, and heard something snap, something thick and wet. She jerked against him, then her body went limp. He leaned back, still holding her hand, though not crushing now, and saw she hadn't passed out. She was fighting a small pained sound in her throat, and glaring at him fiercely. Her pink lips and pale brown eyes were set in lines of rage, now, instead of lines of seduction. Something in him found that more appealing.

_--Without the mask where will you hide—_

"Are you done?"

Her lip curled, but she answered calmly enough, "I'm done."

He backed away from her, coming to stand in front of his door. He tried for neutral, arms crossed over his chest, though an image of crushing her throat like he had her hand was playing in his head.

Pansy cradled her hand in the other, pulled up against her chest. She had already slipped her wand back in a pocket, having retrieved it from the floor where it had fallen. Her voice smoldered as she said, "You've never hurt me this bad outside of the bedroom games before, Draco. I wouldn't have thought you had it in you, to hurt someone when they weren't begging for it."

She was finally admitting she doubted him as a Death Eater. He ignored the fact that he'd been doubting much the same thing, earlier. It was all nicely ignored under the rage. The rage comforted him, masked everything he'd had to take over the years, and just today, from his Aunt Bellatrix to Pansy. "I'm _done_ with games, Pansy. It's your own fault if you were too stupid to think I didn't have it in me to actually hurt you." He smirked at her. "And, as I recall, you _were_ begging for it just a second ago."

She spit at him then. It landed near his dragon hide boots, never actually reaching him.  
"I hate you, Draco. See if you ever have me in your bed again!" She turned, spine rigid as she walked away.

"And just a second ago you were telling me how _good_ I am! Don't worry, Pansy, I'm sure you can find others to fill your voracious appetites! There's always someone willing!" he yelled at her departing back.

She stiffened, and said over her shoulder, almost quietly after all the shouts, "And how many will be willing to touch the son of Lucius Malfoy, now that he's been executed as a failure? The son of Narcissa Malfoy, who spent the last twenty-four hours being tortured by her own sister for her crimes, and is even now dead or mad? The godson of Severus Snape, who is going to spend a long time at the Dark Lord's tender mercies for his traitorous actions? Poor, poor Draco Malfoy… you're no good to anyone, now. You're just another orphan, whose soul belongs to the Dark Lord. No one will ever want you again."

With that, she walked away.

_--Can't find yourself--_

He watched her go. For once, he had nothing to say, and instead just stood, and shook.

_--Lost in your lie--_

He didn't remember entering his room, but found himself inside his chambers, curled once again on the floor with his back against the door. It was as if he could block out Pansy's voice, block out what she'd said, block out the sting of truth in her words.

He was Draco Malfoy, he was rich and pureblood, and the most promising of the young Death Eaters.

And he was no good to anyone, not now. Maybe he never had been.

_--I know the truth now--  
_

Somehow, that thought hurt worst of all. He hated himself for it, that in the midst of it all, it was the thought of who he was now, what he was now, that hurt him most. He hid his face in his hands, then jerked them away in surprise. They came away wet. He touched his cheeks, found cold, salty tears falling in twin rivers down his face.

This was what finally made Draco Malfoy cry.

_--I know who you are--  
_

And he had thought he could hurt no more. But with the realization that yes, indeed, he was crying, it all seemed to break loose, and he cried for what he was, and what he'd been, and everyone he had lost. He didn't scream and rage, this time, just cried quietly into his robes, wishing for all the pain to end, to feel nothing, or at least for the anger which he'd gripped so tightly just moments ago. Anything but this shattering inside him.

He stood in a sudden push of pain, found himself on his feet in front of the mirror on his wall. Staring at himself, all he saw was a pale child who had overestimated himself for a long time now. He leaned into it, huge gray eyes staring into the polished surfaced, as if somewhere in the reflection of his tear-stained face the answers lay. The mirror gave him nothing. His hand came up to touch it, feel it's cold reality against his skin, and then he was smashing it, breaking it, punching his own face into thousands of fragile pieces. He wasn't even sure why, but he derived a sense of satisfaction from the silver shards that now lay around him, from the blood that was steadily pouring out of his hand to spatter red drops around him too. Now, blood and sharp edges surrounded him, and it seemed oddly appropriate that it all threw back tiny images of himself.

_--And I don't love you anymore--_

He even liked the pain in his hand, the evidence that his body could bleed just as well as his heart. Though it was a cleaner pain, and not as long lasting. Something about soul-deep pain seemed to have a more tenacious grip. The ragged depression was reaching back up through the manic haze that had taken him, that had sheltered him for a bursting moment.

It forced him to look at what he'd done through dispassionate eyes rather than satisfied ones. He groaned as he realized that he'd just shattered his own mirror, that he'd enjoyed cutting up his own hand, and that he was still crying. Even that act had not been able to stop the tears once they had started.

It seemed that once one became a sniveling mess, one remained there. Even if that one was Draco Malfoy.

_No_. No, Draco Malfoy was many things, he even knew he had many faults (though he did not find the same ones others would have found), but he was not someone who would hide in his rooms and cry. He was, and always would be, the son of Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy… he refused to be a crying boy hiding in his room. It was not allowed. He was Draco Malfoy.

With that, he found the anger again. The anger that someone could do this to him, could take away everything he was, that in one single day his whole world could be changed so drastically.

_--It never was and never will be--_

And who was it that could do this to him? Of course Voldemort had done it, had been the one to strike the blows… but who had caused the blows to be struck?

It was not his enemy. It was not Harry Potter, whom he'd long despised… it was not even a competitor. It was one he had revered.

It was Severus Snape. He had not brought this on himself. Draco Malfoy had been brought low by someone he considered one of his closest allies, someone who had been a protector and friend for years.

Someone who had lived a lie for all those same years.

_--You're not real and you can't save me--  
_

Draco Malfoy set about the destruction of his room. The fine velvet chairs were smashed into the walls, the expensive tapestries thrown into the fire. Blood was getting all over the carpet as he overturned the wardrobe, sending all those expensive clothes to the floor. He snatched them from where they lay and tossed them into the fire as well. Tears were still falling thick and fast down his face, and he hated them. He picked up a shard of the mirror and began slashing into the meat of the down comforter his mother had given him, sending a riot of feathers into the air as he dug for the mattress.

He decided, in the midst of it, that he would see Severus Snape. He wanted him to see what he'd done to Draco, to feel any guilt that might be left in him. To see where he had brought him, from where he'd been.

The one thing that was circling in his head, the thought he kept coming back to, was an echo of his fathers voice. His father telling him to be strong, to be a Malfoy.

Malfoys never cried.

_--Somehow now you're everybody's fool--_

And yet, the tears continued to pour down Draco Malfoy's face as he tore up the worldly evidence of his life. Something inside him was well and truly broken.

But Malfoys never, ever cried.

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Huh, well… that went to some darker places than I did originally intended. I didn't realize until I was writing it that Pansy and Draco were into some extreme BDSM. But it makes sense, if you ask me. I also expected to have covered much more plot ground in this chapter… but Draco wanted the airtime for his angst, and then suddenly Bellatrix and Pansy appeared, so what are you going to do? What Slytherins want, Slytherins get. And if you don't know what the hell they were talking about there, Pansy and Draco, then either you're a) too young to be reading this fanfic or b) are going to need to ask a few questions to understand things as they go on… remember, this is going to be Draco/Hermione, and if Draco is into BDSM… catch my drift? This will reoccur, but in the setting of yippeee!sex rather than gerrrr!nosex. So tell me if I need to work in more explanation as I go along. Okay, I just didn't want anyone to say I didn't warn them. I promise, nothing ultra-squicky (like someone enjoying having their hands crushed… I can't see Hermione being okay with that extreme. I think she'd be majorly squicked by what has happened in the last two chapters, and since many of the upcoming chapters will be in her point of view, we can't have any of those shenanigans!)

Okay, people, I graduate high school tomorrow… reviews are an accepted gift form! Brownie points to whoever guesses upcoming songs, as last time…. Hint of the day: another evanescence song, and again from the point of view of one Draco Malfoy. No worries, the chapter after that should see the introduction of our canon main characters, starting with Hermione! Yippee, we're progressing!


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